



BookJ^l 



IRELAND UNFREED 



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IRELAND UNFREED 

POEMS AND VERSES WRITTEN IN 
THE EARLY MONTHS OF 1921 BY 

SIR WILLIAM WATSON 



LONDON: JOHN LANE 

THE BODLEY HEAD LIMITED 

MCMXXI 



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^2. 






The larger part of the contents of these pages has 
not been printed before, but several of the sonnets 
and other poems and verses forming the lesser part 
have been published in the Daily News^ and one or 
two in the Times and the Daily Mail. To the editors 
of these newspapers the author tenders his thanks for 
liberty to reclaim his contributions, some of which 
now reappear with altered titles, and three with 
material revision. 



Printed in Great Britain by R. Clay &* Sons, Ltd., Bun^^ay, Suffolk. 



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JULl?'2fT^ 

Alnt4145 ^^ 



©e&fcation 



To you, my little daughters, happy in being 

The daughters also of an Irish mother, 

And happiest when no other 

Than the sweet Irish air 

Is on your cheeks ; to you that blithely share 

The gleesome hours, and catch their bliss a-fleeing, 

I, with grave pen, inscribe this little book ; 

Desiring — nay, foreseeing — 

That you shall live to look 

On Ireland's Freeing. 

W. W. 



^ 



CONTENTS 



DEDICATION 

THE BOUND ONE 

MORE THAN TROPHIES 

REPRISAL BY FIRE .... 

SONNET TO THE PRIME MINISTER 

SONNET — TO SIR HAMAR GREENWOOD . 
WASTED BLANDISHMENTS . 

SONNET TO AMERICA CONCERNING IRELAND 

COMPLETE DELIVERANCE . 

A GLORIOUS IMMUNITY 

SONNET' — TO ERIN ONCE MORE , 

SONNET — AFTER NEWS OF AN EXECUTION 

TILL IRELAND HAS HER OWN 



SONNET — TO THE PRIME MINISTER YET AGAIN 34 



THE STRANGER-MINSTREL . 

SONNET SECRET COMMUNION 

vii 



PAGE 

V 

II 

14 

IS 
17 
19 
21 

23 
25 
26 
28 
30 
33 



36 
38 



kMv _. .^SBBS^L. 



Vlll CONTENTS 






PAGB 


TO AN IRISH PATRIOT 


. 40 


TO AN OPPRESSOR . 


• 41 


THE TWO PUISSANCES 


. 42 


THE VISION .... 


• 44 


ENGLAND'S CHOICE . . . . 


• 45 



IRELAND UNFREED 



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THE BOUND ONE 

Thou whom not joys but perils and 
pangs allure : 

The white foam s sister, as the white 
foam pure : 

The dark storm's daughter, guarding 
long and late 

That far-descended heirloom, ancient 
hate : 

I cannot say — '' In all things that con- 
cerned 

Thee and thy hopes I never swerved 
or turned, 

Or held with stumbling mind a waver- 
ing creed. 




12 THE BOUND ONE 

But this at least I can declare indeed : 

Through days with tempest packed, 
with thunder piled, 

My dream was of an Ireland Recon- 
ciled 

By utter undoing of wrongs all Earth 
saw done, 

And by full freedom to fair friend- 
ship won : 

Not mocked and cheated, conquering 
some vain goal 

That could but foil the hunger of the 
soul, 

And left as now, with the inmost ills 
unchanged. 

The Spouse whom wedlock hath the 
more estranged, 



^^SBfOffffffSS^SSSff''^ 



THE BOUND ONE 1 3 

Whom bonds do the more direly rend 

apart ; 
No — but from long, long sickness of 

the heart 
Delivered : healed with a more sovereign 

balm 
Than the old deep hurts have known : 

and in blest calm — 
An Ireland willing to be loved at 

last — 
Risen from the agonies of the love- 
less Past, 
Risen from a hundred shatterings, great 

and new. 
O that 'twere mine to see that dream 

come true ! 



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MORE THAN TROPHIES 

Ev'n were thy freeing complete, 

The marks thy fetters made 

Could not for ever in a moment fade, 

O Erin, from thy feet ! 

Why should they? 'Twere more meet 

That they remained, to be in times 
afar 

Held sacred, when perhaps mere glory- 
ing Power, 

And all its idols of an age or hour, 

Unreverenced are. 



14 



REPRISAL BY FIRE 

And this, is this the justice that we 

claim 
To have kept untarnished in all realms 

we sway — 
This revel of vengeance, blotting the 

pure day — 
These barbarous deeds, that well might 

make our name 
A byword and a hissing and a shame 
Throughout the Earth ? This is the 

doom-paved way 
By which great Empires in august 

array 

March to their thunderous deaths 'mid 

rage and flame. 
15 



1 6 REPRISAL BY FIRE 

These are the acts that in an hour 

unblest 
Cancel a thousand deeds benignly done, 
Fling far away the good gains Wisdom 

won, 
And striking home to Man's most in- 
ward breast 
Make Domination seem a maniac jest 
Heard 'mid the flare of a distempered 
sun. 



TO THE PRIME MINISTER 
(The Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd George) 

When France was flame, and Belgium 

ashes, and while 
O er us the flying Death continually 
Hung near, you rose to greatness. 

You were he 
Who in the teeth of the enemy's might 

and guile 
Did set a-whirring throughout all this 

isle 

The Wheels of the Machine of Victory. 

And when shall we forget it? When 

the Sea 
B 17 



1 8 TO THE PRIME MINISTER 

Forgets his thunder, or the Morn her 

smile. 
But O sad change! Chiefly, to-day, 

in this 
Your mastery towers — that you forbear 

to stir 
A finger, while your minions fierce and 

fell 
Shatter doomed Ireland's homes, and 

build in her 
A suburb of the great metropolis 
Of evil and woe, whose name on earth 

is Hell 



TO SIR HAMAR GREENWOOD 

No thin, pale fame, no brief and poor 

renown, 
Were thy just due. Of thee shall 

wise Time say : 
** Chartered for havoc, 'neath his rule, 

were they 
Whose chastisement of guilt was to 

burn down 
The house of innocence, in fear-crazed 

town 
And trembling hamlet. While he had 

his way, 

Converts untold did this man make 

each day 

19 



20 TO SIR HAMAR GREENWOOD 

To savage hate of Law and King 
and Crown." 

Great propagandist of the rebel creed ! 

Proselytiser without living peer! 

If thou stand fast — if thou but per- 
severe — 

'Twill be thy glory to complete indeed 

Valera's work, that doth ev'n now so 
need 

Thy mellow art's last touches, large 
and clear! 



WASTED BLANDISHMENTS 

Yes, we do justice — here and there ; 
And patch and peddle and repair ; 
And even sometimes wonder still 
Whether our Rule be good or ill ; 
And marvel much, when Ireland's Soul 
Defies a Government's control ! 

We spread before her that vain bait, 
Co-partnership in our proud fate ; 
But waywardly and wildly wise, 
She turns thereon undazzled eyes. 
For she accounts of far more worth 
Each foot of that green piece of earth 

21 



22 WASTE© BLANDISHMENTS 

Yonder amid the Atlantic spray, 
Where 'tis her children's dream to say ; 
** This is indeed our Isle — our own ! 
This is our Land — and ours alone!' 



TO AMERICA CONCERNING 
IRELAND 

Friend with frank tongue, who o*er 
the unflattering sea 

Dost likewise flatter not: who viewst 
the maze 

And tangle of things through no vague- 
shimmering haze : 

Pledge thou thy word, that if, long 
urged by thee, 

We loose her bonds and set the 
Thralled One free, 

That Morn-fair deed, crowned with 
Man s golden praise, 

Shall not for us, in thy consenting 

gaze, 

23 



24 TO AMERICA CONCERNING IRELAND 

Prove the bright Mother of dark 

calamity ! 
Then shall we know that some who 

else might mar 
The Day spring, and drag Midnight 

from its grave — 
Some whose imperial dreams are loth 

to die — 
Will listen first beside the Western 

Wave : 
Will hear thy thundered interdict afar, 
And flee in terror lest they hear it 

nigh. 



COMPLETE DELIVERANCE 

"A LEAP in the Dark," say the cham- 
pions of Night. 

O surely a leap from the Dark, into 
Light! 



as 



A GLORIOUS IMMUNITY 

Thee, wounded Ireland, thee I gratu- 

late ; 
First, on thy wounds ; next, on that 

very fate 
Whose malice hath yet spared thee one 

worse woe 
Than even thou hast tasted. For 

although 
Grievous is thraldom, in a world be- 

thronged 
With the proud wrongers and the 

prostrate wronged, 

Far deeper is the unconscious misery 
26 



A GLORIOUS IMMUNITY 27 

Of them that shackle those who would 

be free! 
And though the thralled seem hapless, 

theirs who thrall 
Is the most dark, lost, heavenless state 

of all. 



TO ERIN ONCE MORE 

Upon that Day when thou among 

thy peers 
Shalt take the place that is by right 

thine own, 
Judge not of England with a mind 

too prone 
To harsh, hard thoughts ! Though oft 

her palsying fears 
Did freeze up noble purpose, hers 

were tears 
For the worlds heartache — hers no 

breast of stone. 

She wronged thee much : but speak 

not blame alone, 
28 



TO ERIN ONCE MORE 29 

When forth thou step'st into the 
happier years. 

And when, disburdened of a cumber- 
ing weight, 

Thou from the transitory and fugitive — 

From thy dead yesterdays — art loosed, 
to live 

At peace with God and Man and 
Time and Fate, 

Be thine the greatness of the more 
than great, 

Whose glory it is, divinely to forgive. 



AFTER NEWS OF AN 
EXECUTION 

Was it all folly — yonder, hour by hour, 

To choose, not peace, but strife, and 
thereto dare 

The lion couched in his unnative lajr, 

The world-feared lion, mighty to 
devour ? 

O that some folly as splendid were a 
flower 

Not, on all shores but those, so won- 
drous rare ! 

Common as weed in Ireland every- 
where 

30 



AFTER NEWS OF AN EXECUTION 3 1 

That splendid folly blooms, and hath 
the power 

To make a mere slight boy not only 
face 

Death with no tremblings, with no 
coward alarms, 

But like a lover woo it to his arms, 

Clasp with a joyous and a rapt 
embrace 

Deaths beauty, Death's dear sweet- 
ness, Death s pure grace, 

And count all else as nought beside 
Death's charms. 



TILL IRELAND HAS HER 
OWN 

To all who heed, to all the freed, 

To all the unfreed, 'tis known, 
There'll be no rest for Ireland's breast 

Till Ireland Has Her Own. 
Age after age will nurse the rage 

That breeds not rage alone, 
Bringing no rest to Ireland's breast 

Till Ireland Has Her Own ! 

And tell me, when may Englishmen 

Win back the peace that's flown ? 

There'll be no rest for England s hr^diSX. 

Till Ireland Has Her Own. 
32 



TILL IRELAND HAS HER OWN ^^ 

Each day, each hour, unhappier Power, 

On an unsurer throne! 
No rest, no rest for England's breast 

Till Ireland Has Her Own. 



^ik 



TO THE PRIME MINISTER 
YET AGAIN 

(The Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd George) 

Like your renown-clad namesake, who 

did slay, 
Far across Time and its vast charnels 

drear, 
If only with a legendary spear 
A fabled dragon, you in your midday 
Did unto ravening things give battle, 

and they 
Felt your light lance through all their 

scales ! They fear 

That lance no more, perceiving but 

too clear 

34 



TO THE PRIME MINISTER YET AGAIN 35 

How rusted is its chivalry away. 

Plunged is that spear in no foul 
monster's side, 

But pointed at the Captive Maidens 
breast, 

Who, greenly robed, sits pining to 
be free. 

For not as her Deliverer do you ride 

Forth, but to bid her guards be 
adamant, lest 

She escape i' the tempest from cap- 
tivity. 



THE STRANGER-MINSTREL 

O FAIR with broom and woodbine, 
And rowan and wild rose, 

Is the Land of Hope Deferred 
Where the shamrock grows ; 

And thither did I stray 

In the long-gone day. 

And I gave my heart away 
To sweet Ireland. 

Dead Songsters of her household 

Have loved her and adored, 

And their love was like a flame, 

And their song was like a sword ; 
36 



THE STRANGER-MINSTREL 37 

But an alien bard to-day, 
All world-worn and gray, 
Has sung his heart away 
To sweet Ireland. 



SECRET COMMUNION 

Pert Folly said to skyborn Freedom : 
*^Thou 

Hast been so long unknown on Ireland's 
shore, 

Art certain she doth miss thee any 
more? 

Nay, if thou should st return to-morrow, 
how 

Will she remember thee, whose face is 
now 

One of the vague, dim things of here- 
tofore ? 

What if she pause, loth to unlatch her 

door 

38 



SECRET COMMUNION 39 

To such a stranger ? ** Then with a 

lit brow 
Did Freedom speak : **Can Erin*s soul 

forget 
Mine, her companion 'mid the fields 

and streams 
Of her far youth? Ah, no! And 

though it seems 
Ages untold since she and I have 

met 
Ev'n for a day, we meet at midnight 

yet, 

For always am I with her in her 
dreams/* 



-^ -- — ^ 



TO AN IRISH PATRIOT 

Your cause at its centre is pure : the 

wise plan 

Is to keep its circumference pure — it 

you can. 



40 



TO AN OPPRESSOR 

Come down from thy high seat! 

If with the blood of men 

Its steps be slippery, the more easy, 

then, 
The offsliding of thy feet! 
And back thou never shalt be asked 

to climb 
While this tired World ascends the 

stairs of Time. 



41 



THE TWO PUISSANCES 

Ireland, two Puissances there are, that 

claim 
Untrammelled sovereign lordship and 

control, 
This o'er thy body, thy fair outward 
^ frame, 

That o'er the innermost places of thy 

soul. 

One, by the Thames, of perishing- clay 

and lime 

Built its chief seat, and of mere 

crumbling stone. 
42 



THE TWO PUISSANCES 43 

One beside Tiber, gazing beyond 

Time, 
Hath its unfrail, unmundane, mystic 

throne- 

And great and mighty are both these 

Powers on earth, 
O Ireland ! But all men that breathe 

can see — 
Except the sightless who are blind 

from birth— 
Which of the twain doth verily reign 

in thee. 



THE VISION 

^ LOOKED forth through the Void, 
And a dark Hand did draw 
From the near West a curtain, and 

I saw 
Dull Tyranny, on the breath of Folly 

upbuoyed ; 
And a blind surgeon, Statecraft, there 

employed 
To keep the wounds of Ireland ever 

raw ; 
And Rapine, masked as Order, his 

vast maw 
With vengeance still uncloyed ; 
And round these forms, a dance of 

lawless Law 
O'er Liberty Destroyed. 

44 



ENGLAND'S CHOICE 

Yonder where shakes with antic laughter 
In elfin moonlight the spoilful sea, 

What shall the stars behold hereafter — 
Ireland captive or Ireland free? 

Tempest or calm for the Mother who 

bore us, 
Age-crowned England — which shall 

it be? 
Reproach or acclaim in the morrow 

before us? 

Ireland captive or Ireland free? 
45 



46 England's choice 

The quick and the dead have joined 
their voices, 
O mighty and proud one, crying to 
thee — 
'' Choose — while as yet in thy hands 
the choice is : 
Ireland captive or Ireland free." 



A List of Books by the same Author 

IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER 

N,B, — In every case where it is net otherwise stated, the hooks in 
this list are published by John Lane, The Bodley Heady Limited, 

THE PRINCE'S QUEST AND OTHER POEMS 

First published by C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1880, and 
now by John Lane, The Bodley Head, Limited. 
Price 45". 6ar. net. 

EPIGRAMS 

Published by G. G. Walmsley, Liverpool, 1884. 
Now out of print. 

WORDSWORTH'S GRAVE AND OTHER 
POEMS 
Published by T. Fisher Unwin, 1890. Out of print, 
but its contents now incorporated in ** Poems." 

WORDSWORTH'S GRAVE 

Illustrated by Donald Maxwell (** Flowers of 
Parnassus " Series). Price, leather, 3J. net ; cloth, 
2j. net. 

POEMS 

Published by Macmillan & Co., 1892, and after by 
John Lane. Now out of print. 

SELECTED POEMS 

Price, leather, 5^. net ; cloth, 31. 6^. net. 

LACRIMAE MUSARUM AND OTHER POEMS 

First published by Macmillan & Co., 1892, and after 
by John Lane. Now out of print. 

THE ELOPING ANGELS 

Price 3^. 6^. net. 

EXCURSIONS IN CRITICISM 

Essays and Comments on literary subjects. Price 
51. net. 

ODES AND OTHER POEMS 
Price 45. (id, net. 

THE FATHER OF THE FOREST AND OTHER 
POEMS 
Price 3J, 6^. net. 



"THE PURPLE EAST" 

A series of Sonnets on England's Desertion of 
Armenia. Price is. net. 

THE YEAR OF SHAME 

With Introduction by the late Lord Bishop of 
Hereford. Price 2s, 6d. net. 

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD AND OTHER 
POEMS 
Price ^s. 6d. net. 

ODE ON THE DAY OF THE CORONATION 
OF EDWARD VII 

Price 2s. 6d. net. 

FOR ENGLAND 

Poems written during estrangement. Price 25. 6d. net. 

THE POEMS OF WILLIAM WATSON 

Two volumes. Edited by J. A. Spender. Contains 
almost the total contents of the preceding volumes 
in this list, with the author's very numerous emend- 
ations. Price ^s. net. 

NEW POEMS 

Price 5i-. net. 

SABLE AND PURPLE 

Published by Eveleigh Nash, Ltd. Price 2S» 6d, net. 

THE HERALDS OF THE DAWN 
A Dramatic Poem. Price 4^. 6d, net. 

THE MUSE IN EXILE 

Published by Herbert Jenkins, Ltd. Price 3J-. 6d. net. 

PENCRAFT : A Plea for the Older Ways 

An essay challenging certain tendencies of modern 
criticism. Price 2>^, 6d, net. 

RETROGRESSION AND OTHER POEMS 

Price 3 J. 6d. net. 
THE MAN WHO SAW AND OTHER POEMS 

Published by John Murray. Price 35. 6d. net. 

THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS AND 
OTHER POEMS 
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, Ltd. Price 
6j'. net. 



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